Unethical for Lawyers to Check Email at Coffee Shop?

Everyone's done it -- logged on to an email account or the cloud when at a coffee shop, airport or other public place. It's the beauty of living in a wireless era.

But the fact is that beauty may not be so absolute. When you log on in a crowded space, you're not only inviting the prying ears and eyes of nosy neighbors. You may also be inviting hackers to dig through your computer and any confidential data you've saved.

It's a good question, but it's currently without a good answer. It's likely most of you try to keep your voices down and screens shielded when viewing confidential emails and documents in public spaces. It's an easy way to protect client privacy.

As for protecting against hacks on open networks, chances are you don't even know where to start. That's if you've thought about it at all. And you should. Even taking minor steps to preserve computer security can ward off ethics an ethics investigation.

Luckily, improving your computer security is not that hard. Here are a few things you can do to start: